{"id":604035,"date":"2026-02-15T05:29:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T05:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604035\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T05:29:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T05:29:32","slug":"why-is-damian-lillard-not-playing-right-now-full-timeline-injury-updates-after-3-point-contest-victory-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604035\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Damian Lillard not playing right now? Full timeline, injury updates after 3-point contest victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is Damian Lillard not playing right now? Full timeline, injury updates after 3-point contest victory<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Damian Lillard wasn’t expected to see an NBA floor for any kind of competition this season. But on Saturday, he changed that.<\/p>\n

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It wasn’t a full return to action for the veteran guard, but he did win the 2026 3-Point Contest by taking down Devin Booker and Kon Knueppel in the final round — Lillard’s third all-time victory in the event, which ties him for the most all-time with Larry Bird and Craig Hodges.<\/p>\n

While fans got a glimpse at another electric performance from “Dame Time” on Saturday night, it may be some time before he officially makes his return to the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s the latest on Lillard’s Achilles injury recovery after he won the 3-Point contest on Saturday.<\/p>\n

MORE:Full results from Damian Lillard’s 3-Point Contest win<\/a><\/p>\n

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Why is Damian Lillard not playing?<\/p>\n

Lillard has been sidelined since April 2025, when he tore his left Achilles in Game 4 of a first-round playoff series between the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> and Indiana Pacers<\/a>. He was wrapping up his second season with the Bucks at the time, and he had recently made a return from a deep vein thrombosis diagnosis that sidelined him for multiple weeks.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee was eliminated from the playoffs soon afterward, and Lillard entered the 2025 offseason with a long injury recovery ahead of him. Given his age (35), it was expected that Lillard would miss most of the 2025-26 season, if not all of it.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Lillard will be back in action once he’s reached a full recovery from his Achilles tear. He is around 10 months into his recovery, which is certainly a point where athletes can participate in more intense activities \u2014 such as winning a 3-Point Contest.<\/p>\n

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Lillard is certainly far-along enough in his recovery that he felt comfortable participating in Saturday’s event, even without any action on the court so far this season. The 3-Point contest wasn’t too taxing on his legs, allowing him to participate even while technically still in recovery from his injury.<\/p>\n

Did Damian Lillard get traded?<\/p>\n

No, Lillard did not get traded. But he did make a massive team change this past offseason, and it was a welcomed reunion with his longtime Portland Trail Blazers squad.<\/p>\n

The Bucks, aiming to contend with Giannis Antetokounmpo in his prime, chose to waive Lillard in the offseason despite his massive contract. That made him a star free agent, but also one who was not expected to contribute on the court in the 2025-26 season due to his injury.<\/p>\n

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The Blazers turned out to be the perfect fit for Lillard as he made his recovery, offering him an organization and fanbase he was well-familiar with, the chance to rehab his Achilles without a rush to return, and an opportunity to bring veteran leadership \u2014 and eventually, elite scoring \u2014 to a younger team that needed it.<\/p>\n

Lillard signed a three-year contract with Portland last summer, with the expectation that he would be sidelined in 2025-26, but then bring his typical offensive prowess by the 2026-27 season. In Saturday’s 3-Point Contest, he officially donned a Blazers jersey in a competition for the first time since he left the franchise a few years ago.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0All-Star Game 2026 predictions: Slam dunk contest, 3-point winner, MVP, and more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Damian Lillard injury timeline<\/p>\n

Lillard, even with his performance in the 3-Point Contest, is not expected to return this season. Ever since he tore his Achilles in April 2025, the expectation has been that as a 30-plus-year-old guard, he’d need the full 2025-26 season to recover.<\/p>\n

Portland has hung around .500 this season, owning a 27-29 record at the All-Star Break with Deni Avdija emerging as an All-Star himself. But considering the Blazers have more of a long-term outlook in their rebuild, including young pieces like Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, they won’t be rushing Lillard back to make a title push this year.<\/p>\n

For now, Lillard is expected to return to action in the 2026-27 season, where the Trail Blazers could roll out a lineup of:<\/p>\n

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Damian Lillard contract<\/p>\n

After being waived by the Bucks in the offseason, Lillard signed a three-year, $41.6 million deal to reunite with the Trail Blazers. The final year carries a player option.<\/p>\n

The AAV of around $13.87 million was far below what Lillard has historically earned \u2014 but his injury, age, massive cap hit from his Bucks exit and a potential hometown discount likely all played a factor.<\/p>\n

Per Spotrac,<\/a> Lillard carries a cap hit of $14.1 million this season. He will be under contract with Portland through his age-36 season, with a player option for his age-37 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why is Damian Lillard not playing right now? Full timeline, injury updates after 3-point contest victory originally appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[8847,7,601,125,980,2292,974,123,126,19017,2038,968,121,6,687,471,3967,4425,4426,7140,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-604035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-achilles-injury","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-blazers","11":"tag-damian-lillard","12":"tag-deni-avdija","13":"tag-devin-booker","14":"tag-donovan-clingan","15":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","16":"tag-indiana-pacers","17":"tag-injury-recovery","18":"tag-jrue-holiday","19":"tag-kon-knueppel","20":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-portland","23":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","24":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","25":"tag-scoot-henderson","26":"tag-shaedon-sharpe","27":"tag-toumani-camara","28":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116073002790045381","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}